Ecological Compliance and Consents Lead

AECO; Cardiff; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 125,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible hybrid working

Career development opportunities

AECOM University

Volunteering days

Job summary

AECOM, a global infrastructure firm, invites applicants for an Associate Director - Environmental and Ecological Compliance Lead to guide ECoW/EnvCoW services UK&I across major projects. The role can be based in Basingstoke, Cambridge, or Leeds, with flexibility for other offices.

You will build a specialist partner network, provide technical leadership, ensure quality, and drive environmental compliance across planning, DCO and construction stages.

Qualifications

• Experience delivering Environmental and/or Ecological Clerk of Works (ECoW) services on major infrastructure, utilities or development projects.
• Strong understanding of construction-phase ecological and environmental compliance requirements.
• Experience working directly with contractors and construction delivery teams.
• Knowledge of environmental/ecological secondary consents (planning conditions, DCOs, environmental permits, licensing).
• Experience reviewing, assuring and approving environmental compliance deliverables.
• Strong ecological background to act as technical lead and quality reviewer for ECoW services.
• Experience managing subcontractors, suppliers or specialist delivery partners.
• Strong commercial awareness and experience supporting business development and client engagement.
• Membership of CIEEM or equivalent; chartered preferred.

Responsibilities

• Act as AECOM's UK&I lead for ECoW and EnvCoW services.
• Lead verifier for ECoW deliverables from internal teams and partners.
• Ensure projects are resourced, mobilised and delivered to quality standards.
• Provide expert advice on ecological risk management and consent implementation.
• Support growth of secondary consents service line within environmental compliance.
• Develop UK&I supply chain strategy for ECoW and related services.
• Support delivery of environmental commitments on major projects.
• Grow Clerk of Works services like arboriculture and archaeology through integrated solutions.

Skills

ECoW experience

Enviro compliance

Contractor experience

Secondary consents

QC reviewer

Ecological lead

Subcontractor mgmt

BD awareness

CIEEM member

Job description

At AECOM, we're delivering a better world. Whether improving your commute, keeping the lights on, providing access to clean water, or transforming skylines, our work helps people and communities thrive. We are the world's trusted infrastructure consulting firm, partnering with clients to solve the world’s most complex challenges and build legacies for future generations.

There has never been a better time to be at AECOM. With accelerating infrastructure investment worldwide, our services are in great demand. We invite you to bring your bold ideas and big dreams and become part of a global team of over 50,000 planners, designers, engineers, scientists, digital innovators, program and construction managers and other professionals delivering projects that create a positive and tangible impact around the world.

We're one global team driven by our common purpose to deliver a better world. Join us.

Job Description

Start here. Grow here.

Are you an experienced ECoW professional looking to lead and grow a nationally significant environmental compliance service?

Join our dynamic Nature team as an Associate Director - Environmental and Ecological Compliance Lead to provide technical leadership for our Ecological Clerk of Works (ECoW) and Environmental Clerk of Works (EnvCoW) services across the UK & Ireland. This role can be based in any of our UK office locations, including Basingstoke, Cambridge, and Leeds.

A key part of the role will be building and managing a high-quality network of specialist delivery partners. Through strong technical leadership, quality assurance and supply chain development, you will help create a scalable environmental compliance business capable of supporting some of the UK's largest infrastructure projects.

Working with contractors, developers and project teams, you will help clients deliver planning, DCO and environmental consent commitments during construction, while acting as a senior technical authority and lead verifier for environmental compliance activities.

Here’s what you’ll do:

• Act as AECOM's UK&I lead for ECoW and EnvCoW services.
• Act as Lead Verifier for ECoW-related deliverables produced by internal teams and supply chain partners.
• Ensure projects are appropriately resourced, mobilised and delivered to AECOM's quality standards.
• Provide expert advice on construction-phase ecological risk management, environmental compliance and consent implementation.
• Support the growth of the secondary consents service line through your focus on environmental and ecological compliance role.
• Develop and implement a UK&I supply chain strategy for ECoW, EnvCoW and wider environmental compliance services.
• Support successful delivery of environmental commitments across major infrastructure projects.
• Support the growth of wider Clerk of Works services such as arboriculture and archaeology, through integrated environmental compliance solutions.

Come & Grow with Us.

Become part of AECOM's industry-leading Environment Business Line, working alongside specialists in ecology, environmental assessment, nature-based solutions, arboriculture, archaeology, impact assessment and environmental management across the UK & Ireland.

You will have the opportunity to help shape a growing and strategically important service area, working on some of the UK's largest infrastructure and DCO programmes. Our collaborative culture, technical excellence and commitment to innovation provide an exceptional platform for career development and industry leadership.

Enjoy the Perks.

At AECOM, you'll enjoy a range of core and personalised benefits designed to support your future and well-being, customised to fit your lifestyle. Take advantage of career development opportunities, our flexible hybrid working model to ensure a work-life balance that suits your lifestyle, technical practice networks, AECOM University, and volunteering days.

Qualifications

Ready to push the limits of what’s possible?

Here’s what we’re looking for:

• Experience delivering Environmental and / or Ecological Clerk of Works (ECoW) services on major infrastructure, utilities or development projects.
• Strong understanding of construction-phase ecological and environmental compliance requirements.
• Experience working directly with contractors and construction delivery teams.
• Knowledge of required environmental and / or ecological secondary consents, including planning conditions, Development Consent Orders (DCOs), environmental permits and protected species licensing requirements.
• Experience reviewing, assuring and approving environmental compliance deliverables.
• Strong ecological background with the credibility to act as a technical lead and quality reviewer for ECoW services.
• Experience managing subcontractors, suppliers or specialist delivery partners.
• Strong commercial awareness and experience supporting business development, client engagement and work winning activities.
• Membership of CIEEM or an equivalent professional body and preferably chartered (or working towards chartership).

We celebrate diversity, including neurodiversity, and believe it enriches our team. We welcome applications from all backgrounds and abilities. If you are an applicant with a disability that requires reasonable accommodation to complete the application process, please contact us at [emailprotected] . At AECOM, we value everyone's unique contributions and perspectives.

Additional Information

At AECOM, we are committed to maintaining a secure and trustworthy recruitment process and take any fraudulent hiring activity seriously. To support this commitment, all newly hired employees are required to attend an in-person Day 1 onboarding at an AECOM office location as a condition of employment.

About AECOM

AECOM is the world’s trusted infrastructure consulting firm, delivering professional services throughout the project lifecycle – from advisory, planning, design and engineering to program and construction management. On projects spanning transportation, buildings, water, new energy and the environment, our public- and private-sector clients trust us to solve their most complex challenges. Our teams are driven by a common purpose to deliver a better world through our unrivaled technical and digital expertise, a culture of equity, diversity and inclusion, and a commitment to environmental, social and governance priorities. AECOM is a Fortune 500 firm and its Professional Services business had revenue of $16.1 billion in fiscal year 2025. See how we are delivering sustainable legacies for generations to come at aecom.com and @AECOM.

Freedom to Grow in a World of Opportunity

You will have the flexibility you need to do your best work with hybrid work options.Whether you’re working from an AECOM office, remote location or at a client site, you will be working in a dynamic environment where your integrity, entrepreneurial spirit and pioneering mindset are championed.

You will help us foster a safe and respectful workplace, where we invite everyone to bring their whole selves to work using their unique talents, backgrounds and expertise to create transformational outcomes for our clients.

AECOM provides a wide array of compensation, benefits and well-being programs to meet the diverse needs of our employees and their families. We’re the world’s trusted global infrastructure firm, and we’re in this together – your growth and success are ours too.

Join us, and you’ll get all the benefits of being a part of a global, publicly traded firm – access to industry-leading technology and thinking and transformational work with big impact and work flexibility.As an Equal Opportunity Employer, we believe in each person’s potential, and we’ll help you reach yours.

We are aDisabilityConfidentEmployer and will offer an interview to applicants who have a disability or long-term condition, who meet the minimum/essential criteria for the role. Please let us know using this email address [emailprotected] if you would like to apply through theDisabilityConfidentInterview Scheme.

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.